Out of Hours (OOH) & Optional Daytime Customer Call Handling Framework Contract 2012 For local authorities & other public sector bodies Main features – 2013

Contents

Scope and nature of the Framework ................................................................. 1 Charges ............................................................................................................. 2 The chosen Service Provider ........................................................................... 3 Meeting individual organisation requirements ................................................. 4 Service Standards ............................................................................................ 5 Avoiding poor performance ............................................................................ 5 Contract terms and conditions ....................................................................... 6 Optional daytime call handling ...................................................................... 6 Additional optional services .......................................................................... 6 Contract management arrangements .............................................................. 7 IT and telecommunications linkages and support ........................................... 7 Performance reporting and access to records ............................................... 8 Scope for service improvement ...................................................................... 8 Framework Contact Points ............................................................................ 9

Scope and nature of the Framework

The service covers Out of Hours customer call handling as well as an option for the provision of daytime call handling. The driver for the contract arose from the public sector’s need to significantly reduce the cost of Out of Hours call handling and improve service levels and quality. The provider takes inbound calls, diagnoses the cause and need, and passes details of relevant calls to borough duty teams or the appropriate contractor, which in turn, fulfil the services to the public.

The agreement is available to all members of the London Contracts and Supplies Group (LCSG) - currently London boroughs, Housing Associations, ALMOs and a number of other London-based public sector organisations. It is also open to the 10 members of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) and to public sector bodies in the south-east of England. It is designed to offer service and financial benefits in a way that encourages participation. For London, it costs nothing for qualifying organisations to become LCSG members and hence gain eligibility to access the Framework without any need to run a further procurement. The service specification has been developed by a team of senior staff from a number of boroughs who are responsible for call handling, working through the Customer Service Group for London and London Councils. The specification has taken on the learning and best practice from the previous shared service contract, which has been running since 2008.

The Framework contract is in place and has been signed by the London Borough of Ealing on behalf of all potential participants. To use the Framework, each participating organisation signs an access agreement with the provider – tailored to their precise service specification, but protected by the already negotiated overarching Framework terms and conditions and attracting the preferential pricing.

Accessing the Framework can take place at any point in the lifespan of the contract. The Framework lasts for 6 years, from 1st October 2012 until 30th September 2018, and each individual access agreement will terminate at that point, to facilitate maximum leverage when the service is retendered. This 6 year duration reflects the substantial level of investment required on the part of the provider.

The agreement follows on from a previous highly successful four-year framework agreement (with the same provider) which expires in October 2012. This is currently being used on a daily basis by nine London local authorities and two London housing organisations. The experience gained during the operation of this previous contract has been used to enhance the specification for the new framework agreement.

The cost of the procurement exercise for this contract (approximately £175,000) was jointly funded by the 11 current participants and managed by the London Borough of Ealing, in line with procurement best practice. New joiners will benefit from this and will not be charged for use of the Framework.

**Charges**

Charges are highly competitive: based on the experience of current participants, organisations can expect to pay approximately just **ONE THIRD** of the cost of running an equivalent service in-house. (There may be additional charges associated with TUPE, if it is applied). There are three main elements to the service charge:

1. One-off setup fee for new joiners relating to service specification, design, transition and implementation
2. Price per call
3. Monthly Management Fee

*Please Note:*

- Price elements 2 and 3 above (the price per call and the monthly management fee) reduce significantly as more agencies join the framework.
- The setup fee for new joiners will be dependent on whether the new joiner chooses to use ‘best practice’ processes which are already in use by others, and also the number of different service options that they require. For example an organisation which requires 20 different service options and uses current live processes will pay only £3800 in setup fees.

All charges to boroughs are based on a comprehensive fixed schedule of rates. They are fixed for three years (until October 2015) at which point they may increase by the maximum of one year’s inflation following a ‘value for money’ review. They will then be fixed for the remaining three years.

The monthly management fee has been reduced by approximately 50% from previous levels, to make the service more affordable for organisations with relatively low volumes of calls.

In the event that TUPE applies and some existing borough/organisation staff transfer to the provider, GDIT (which has already been the case so far at least two organisations), then extra charges may apply using a contractually agreed formula, based on any difference between the total cost of such transferring staff (including salary) and the cost of GDIT’s own current call centre staff.

**The chosen Service Provider**

The chosen service provider is General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). See [www.vangent.co.uk](http://www.vangent.co.uk) The resilient service is delivered from their existing contact centres in London Bridge and Hellaby, South Yorkshire. GDIT operates a secure, state-of-the-art high-volume 24x7x365 call handling service for a number of clients. GDIT have been selected through an exhaustive competitive process as the service provider and stand ready to give any interested borough or organisation a full quotation, proposed timetable and plan for the setup and operation of the service, prior to any agreement being entered into (this will depend on the organisation providing sufficient information on the required scope of service).

**Meeting individual organisation requirements**

Utilising a purpose built technology platform, GDIT will configure the service for each organisation to meet that organisation’s own service requirements and operational procedures for the delivery of their respective services.

For each individual service (e.g. noise patrol) GDIT will collaborate with each organisation to develop the necessary procedures and guidance for handling their designated customer calls. Organisations have the choice of adopting existing ‘best practice’ processes, or adopting bespoke processes, if their requirements are unique.

**Major Emergencies / Incident:** In case of major borough emergencies/incidents, GDIT have the necessary experience and are committed to giving a high quality of response in line with participating organisations’ individual procedures and escalation arrangements.

**Changes:** Once the service is in operation for an individual organisation, minor changes to existing services (e.g. hours of operation, contact points) may be implemented by individual organisations within 24 hours if required, at no extra cost.

**New Services:** Any time during the contract period, new services can be added at a fixed price. Up to six weeks’ notice may be required for this, dependent on scope and complexity.

An individual service (e.g. noise patrol) can be totally withdrawn at a month’s notice. If an organisation’s circumstances change they can terminate the contract completely after giving a year’s notice, without charge.

Prior to implementation each organisation finalises with GDIT specific procedures to be followed for a range of non-standard emergency calls (e.g. people at risk). Service Standards

A set of strong service standards is built into the contractual agreement. These are based on best practice in call handling and cover:

- speed of call answering
- minimising abandoned calls
- accuracy of individual call diagnosis and action taken
- speed of passing service requests to duty staff
- ensuring availability of the full service
- speed of resolution of technical faults
- compliance with escalation procedures
- meeting customer service standards
- complaints handling
- production of performance data

GDIT’s call handling staff are given extensive training in the requirements of individual boroughs and organisations, including relevant local background information. All call centre staff are CRB checked.

GDIT have sufficient staff and technical capacity to handle any unexpected peaks of incoming calls, and organisation-specific SLA’s protect each organisation from the effect of such peaks in other areas.

In the event of major problems affecting their call centre, GDIT implement regularly tested business continuity and/or disaster recovery procedures to minimise any impact on the service to the public. These include switching operations to an alternative call centre.

To allow for differing requirements, and to minimise unnecessary costs to participants, the contract allows for two different standards of initial response, which relate to how quickly calls are answered and to the number of abandoned calls that are acceptable.

Avoiding poor performance

The individual organisation’s access agreement provides comprehensive protection in the unlikely event of poor performance by GDIT. The scheme of protection is designed to be rigorous enough to prevent the need for sanctions. Out of Hours (OOH)\
& Optional Daytime Customer Call Handling\
Framework Contract 2012\
Main features – February 2013

Arrangements include:

- Pre-specified financial abatements for poor performance, covering any aspect of delivery in any month
- Poor performance notices requiring rapid response at senior level and actions to resolve
- Controlled service termination in extremis (allowing for handover to an alternative service delivery operation).

Contract terms and conditions

These have already been developed by the participating organisations’ own legal experts, and are based on best practice covering such areas as assignment and subcontracting, health and safety, data protection, confidentiality, freedom of information requirements, security and loss of data, indemnity and insurance, contract termination and its consequences, dispute resolution, exit from the agreement upon its expiry.

They deal fully with TUPE requirements.

They provide for a Parent Company Guarantee or a Performance Bond where organisations need this.

Optional daytime call handling

The framework allows for the optional operation of daytime call handling by GDIT for participating organisations if they require it. A number of existing participants are interested in this. These facilities can be used for a wide range of services, and include arrangements for GDIT to take payments and to directly use organisation’s own back office systems where this is needed. The pricing schedule includes competitive charges for setting up such arrangements and handling calls.

Additional optional services

In addition to passing call details to duty staff by phone, GDIT’s purpose built solution is specifically designed to offer the option to pass call details via e-mail, SMS texts or to pagers - these are far more cost effective than via a phone call. GDIT can at short notice, operate a temporary backup or overflow service to take calls from the public in the event of an emergency situation affecting the normal daytime operations of an organisation’s switchboard or call centre (This is also included in the Framework Agreement and is for a pre-agreed cost per call minute).

GDIT have the capacity and experience to undertake related IT development work e.g. for integration requirements. Any additional project work undertaken by GDIT which is beyond the scope of pre-negotiated activities, will be charged at a single pre-agreed hourly rate. GDIT can undertake an outbound calling initiative at an initial agreed rate per call minute.

**Contract management arrangements**

Each participating organisation will have a nominated GDIT Contract Manager as their key contact point, there will be round-the-clock cover for this person. Day-to-day service management will be undertaken by an individual organisation in direct liaison with their GDIT Contract Manager.

All participating organisations will have a seat, on and be represented by, a Joint Operational Management Board which has oversight of the total operation of all services delivered under the overarching framework agreement.

One of the participating organisations, by joint agreement and for an agreed period, takes on the role of ‘Central Contract Management Authority’, involving ongoing oversight of the operation of the framework agreement, and they are jointly funded for this role by all the participating organisations. This role is currently held by Ealing Council.

**IT and telecommunications linkages and support**

A simple automated process can be used to divert incoming calls from the public from each organisation’s telephone system to GDIT’s sites for the required hours of operation. The correct operation of this is regularly monitored.

Full details of each call received and how it is handled are held on GDIT’s database and these can be checked by an organisation’s staff. If required, GDIT regularly provide full details of individual calls handled in a standardised format to be loaded into the appropriate systems for an organisation (such as CRMs), and is available to assist organisations with setting up these arrangements.

Call handling staff can have access to borough web-based information to help them deal with calls.

Calls are recorded and encrypted. Call recordings can be accessed by the respective organisation’s approved staff.

**Performance reporting and access to records**

All participating organisations receive a comprehensive pre-specified range of detailed performance reports on a weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis. Quarterly and annual reports include comparative performance data for all the participating organisations.

GDIT respond within a day to urgent ad-hoc organisations’ requirements for simple aggregated data, at no extra cost.

Participating organisations can have access to all call handling records either via secure remote access to GDIT’s own system or via a regular spreadsheet.

**Scope for service improvement**

It may be possible to improve individual organisation’s services by sharing ‘what works best’ & approaches to minimising charges across participating organisations. GDIT will assist organisations with this and it is a key focus of joint meetings.

In addition to improved services, documented process flow diagrams, full record keeping and detailed reporting will further the financial benefits of participating in this framework agreement. Guidance & Pricing for organisations considering joining the Framework

In addition to assistance from GDIT themselves, the existing participating organisations are happy to provide advice and support to potential new joiners on all aspects of preparation.

Ealing Council are currently preparing a ready reckoner to allow interested organisations to accurately estimate their likely charges under the contract.

Framework Contact Points

Please contact Michelle Bernard bernardm@ealing.gov.uk And/or Neil Darroch Neil.Darroch@Vangent.com